[Automation, Marketo] Marketo Files for IPO: Will High Growth Outweigh High Losses?

Marketo made good today on its promise to file for an initial public offering (IPO). The S-1 registration statement gives considerable new information about Marketo’s business. Marketo’s other operating costs (research & development and general & administrative) are also high – 52% of revenue, compared with 35% for Salesforce.com and 33% for Eloqua.

Summary: Public data gives some insights into Marketo's financial history and prospects. Here’s a bit more on this week's $25 million investment in Marketo : a piece in VentureWire quotes revenue for Markteo as $4.5 Data I've collected over the years shows that Marketo had about 120 clients at the start of 2009, 325 at the start of 2010, and should end 2010 with about 800.

Marketo today announced the launch of Spark , a new brand aimed at small and mid-size business. Functionally, Spark is pretty much identical to the standard Marketo system. Most of these aren’t of interest to small business, and several involve additional charges even for Marketo’s regular packages. Spark starts at $750 per month with no annual contract, compared with Marketo’s $2,000 per month minimum and annual contract for its full-featured Professional Edition. Whether Marketo actually makes any money at this price is questionable.

But the good folks at Marketo have taken a step in that direction with their latest enhancement, which they call an “engagement program”. The system will go through the content in this order during each execution (which Marketo calls a “cast”), and send each person the first item they have not already received. This is something Marketo might want to reconsider.

MORE >>

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MATRIX

APRIL 10, 2014

[Automation, Marketo] Marketo Conference: Small Changes, Big Picture

'Marketo wrapped up its three day Marketing Nation conference yesterday, having once more displayed its own marketing prowess by attracting national media attention (see here and here ) with an appearance by Hillary Clinton. Still, the real focus was on Marketo’s own announcements, which included several product changes and a new positioning. My main reaction was, what’s new?

final installment in my series of posts on leaders in the different B2B marketing automation sectors, as determined by the ratings in our VEST report. Most require the full set of marketing automation functions but apply these in simple ways. They have one to fifteen marketing automation users. Today I’ll present the third and (mercifully?) And, no, they’re not my client.)

Last week, Jeff Ogden , President of Find New Customers spent a full day with a client of Marketo. This company was kind enough to demonstrate what they had set up in Marketo – for nurturing, lead scoring, etc. This company, who was struggling to get value from their software, did not lack technical skills- they had Marketo knowledge in-house. They were unable to create quality content for Marketo and saw a major problem. But they need not be experts in your software. Yes, you need someone trained in the software. I was not impressed.
MORE >>

[Automation, Marketo] 9 ways to make the case for marketing automation software

Let’s face it, nobody likes to buy software. Even with marketing automationsoftware, whose inherent intention is to make your marketing efforts both more streamlined (lower cost) and more effective (higher sales pipeline output), it can be difficult to carve out the dollars necessary to get rolling. If others in your group or organization need convincing to give marketing automationsoftware a go, here are nine proven ways to get the thumbs-up. Don’t just talk about automating marketing. Don’t talk about software. Do the math.
MORE >>

[Automation, Marketo] Is Marketing Automation Right for Every Company?

'For those of us who work in and around the technology every day, it can seem like marketing automation is already pervasive. Analyst David Raab reports that for companies under $5 Million in revenue, marketing automation penetration is a miserly 5 percent. That might suggest that the adoption rate for marketing automation is lagging, but revenues for the leading companies are climbing at a torrid 50-60 percent per year. Which begs the question: is marketing automation right for every company? Industry data tells us something different.
MORE >>

Recently I was asked to contribute some thoughts to Marketo’s new ebook, “ The Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation.” You can download a free copy of the ebook – 100 pages on everything you need to know about marketing automation – what it is, how it’s different from CRM, common features, keys to success, and more – by clicking here. What are the most important things to look for in a marketing automation vendor? What do you think the future of marketing automation will look like in the next few years? Below is my contribution (see Page 71.).
MORE >>

'TrustRadius , an online community designed to help business software users make better product selection, implementation, and usage decisions, just released their first-ever “ Buyer’s Guide to Marketing AutomationSoftware.”. The 44-page guide is based on 400 in-depth reviews and more than 10,000 comparisons performed by Marketing Automation buyers, and provides a very detailed and useful comparison of the leading brands. The guide also includes insights from leading marketing automation practitioners. Marketo announced an open ecosystem platform strategy.
MORE >>

B2B Marketing Zone can personalize the content based on your interests,
your LinkedIn profile, what you share on Twitter and LinkedIn, and what content people
similar to you are sharing. More on Content Personalization

Sign-in using your social networks so we can begin to personalize your experience.

We need your email and password to allow you to log into your personalization features.